Hops a-brewin' across New York

Farmers hope to bring crop into 21st century

Kate Seckinge, Times Union

By Kate Seckinger

Updated 2:05 pm, Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Assistant brewer Sam Pagano demonstrates how to stir the mash with a paddle in a brewery vat that turns grains into beer at the Albany Pump Station on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 in Albany, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

View from the top of a brewery vat that turns grains into beer at the Albany Pump Station on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 in Albany, N.Y. Assistant brewer Sam Pagano is seen looking into the dining room. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Assistant brewer Sam Pagano demonstrates how to stir the mash with a paddle in a brewery vat that turns grains into beer at the Albany Pump Station on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 in Albany, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Correction: In an earlier version of this story, Jeremy Cowan's name was incorrect.

New York's hops crop, destroyed in the last century by blight and Prohibition, is making a comeback. The surge in craft breweries and legislation intended to boost the use of locally grown ingredients have farmers scrambling to meet growing demand.

Several farms in the Capital Region are growing hops — the ingredient that lends beer its bitterness and aroma — in an effort to return the state to the pre-eminent role it played in the late 19th century.

The New York State Farm Brewery Act, signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in July 2012, encouraged farm breweries to use local hops in return for such benefits as being able to sell the beer they make on premises and to be exempt from tax filing requirements.

The law benefits local farmers, but may have exacerbated a shortage that already existed. With the proportion of local hops required rising to 90 percent by 2024 from the current 20 percent, demand is only expected to grow.

Jeremy Cowan, founder of Shmaltz Brewing in Clifton Park, said the shortage had an effect on his business. "We got really damaged by it in 2007, '08 and '09, so we are very cautious to protect ourselves moving forward," Cowan said. "Shmaltz is very lucky we are not affected at this time because of multiyear contracts in place."

Gregg Stacy, vice president at Brown's Brewing Co. in Troy, says the farm brewery act is beneficial because it will support New York beer.

"We have a lot of amateur growers in New York," Stacy said. "The industry is in its infancy here, but it will become more organized as time goes on. Hops success will happen — it'll just take a little while."

Stacy believes that the hops' return is a great leap forward, but is a learning curve first.

"Hops are a sexy thing right now," Stacy said. "A lot of people think if they inherit land from Grandma, they'll be able to grow hops and make the big bucks. But that's just not how it works."

Experienced farmers like Laurie Ten Eyck, 52, of Helderberg Hop Farm at Indian Ladder Farms in Voorheesville, says a lot of labor goes into planting and harvesting hops. It takes an hour to harvest the hundreds of hops or cone-shaped flowers in one plant, and each acre can have 1,000 plants.

Without harvest machinery that costs between $25,000 and $37,000, Ten Eyck says, spending 1,000 hours — the equivalent of 25 40-hour workweeks — is just impractical.

"There are a lot of people who see the romance in hop farming, but probably won't stay with it because it's still farming and it's difficult," Ten Eyck said.

Ten Eyck estimated it costs $15,000 an acre to establish a hop yard. It takes at least three years for the crop to become profitable, she said. Those who planted because of the two-year-old Farm Brewery Act still have a year or more to go before they see a profit.

Hops have a storied past.

"The historical thing with hops is so interesting here," said Dietrich Gehring, Ten Eyck's husband and co-owner of Heleberg Hop Farm. "It was a huge industry a century ago, and now we're struggling."

After more experience, Gehring plans to open the Indian Ladder Farmstead Brewery and Cidery in fall 2015.

"If you want to become a dairy farmer, there's always some old guy you can ask, but you can't do that with hops," Gehring said. "You can read as much as you want, but there are a lot of things someone took to the grave with them."

Greg Garrison, 30, a fourth-generation farmer who owns Saratoga Hops, claims that hops didn't return to New York for a reason.

In the United States, "when hops were big in the Northeast, we hadn't expanded to the West much," Garrison said. "Now we know the climate is ideal there, so there was never a reason for hops to come back. Now with the law, there is."

New York hops have grown exponentially, with more than 250 acres expected to be planted this year, up from 150 last year and 75 in 2012. That still pales compared to acreage devoted to the crop in the West.

Washington state had 27,062 acres devoted to hops last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

The West has the supply to meet hop demand, and they're less expensive than hops grown in the East, at least for now.

Cascade, the most popular type of hops plant, costs around $7 a pound out West, but runs close to $13 in New York.

The New York Farm Bureau says the more locally made beers New Yorkers drink, the more demand farmers will see for their hops. And that could encourage farmers to boost production.

"It's simple," Pagano said. "Craft beers are usually localized. Albany Pump Station brews are only found in Albany. When you buy them, you're supporting local communities, jobs and New York agriculture. All the more reason to drink up."